Conventionally, conveyor belts—also called transport belts—which convey objects have typically been used most regularly at factories and the like where mass production is taking place. Such belts are made using materials such as rubber, woven fabric, wire mesh, steel plate, and so forth. Such a belt might be suspended as a result of being formed into a loop about belt rollers, i.e., pulleys, provided at either end, an object which is to be conveyed thereby being conveyed when placed on such a belt due to motion of the belt. And such conveyor belts which convey objects to be conveyed are used not only at the aforesaid factories and the like where mass production is taking place, but may be incorporated within treatment apparatuses or processing apparatuses that treat or process individual objects, being employed within such apparatuses to convey objects to be treated or objects to be processed. Examples of such processing apparatuses include, for example, conveyor belts that convey medicinal pills or other such small objects, conveyor belts that convey copier paper for electrophotographic apparatuses within the apparatus, and so forth.
Conventionally known as such conveyor belts are those that have been made into belts for conveying any of a variety of objects. Variously developed examples of structures of such conveyor belts will be described in turn below.
First, a conveyor belt is proposed that is a conveyor belt which comprises a mesh belt woven from yarn comprising synthetic fibers and which is formed by causing reinforcing synthetic fiber fabric to cover and fuse with the ends on either side of this mesh belt (see, for example, Patent Reference No. 1).
Second, a belt is proposed which is formed by laminating a rubber elastic layer to one face of a stretch knit fabric (see, for example, Patent Reference No. 2).
Third, a conveyor belt is proposed which has a belt core that is woven in mesh-like fashion from glass fibers, the belt being such that a plurality of seal strips formed from resin or flexible material are integrally provided in row-like fashion in the conveying direction, being formed so as to protrude from the inner and outer surfaces thereof, and the belt side ends are moreover reinforced with fabric or other such reinforcing material in such fashion as to straddle the belt core (see, for example, Patent Reference No. 3).
Fourth is a conveyor belt which is a filter mesh belt formed from a mesh portion formed between portions formed at either side in the long direction and a plurality of reinforcing portions arranged so as to cross the mesh portion, these side portions and these reinforcing portions being woven more tightly than the mesh portion and being imparted with more rigidity than the mesh portion. Hot-melt fibers are moreover woven into the side portions and reinforcing portions, application of heat treatment thereto causing these to be molded together in integral fashion, this integrally molded belt being what is proposed (see, for example, Patent Reference No. 4).
Fifth, proposed is a belt comprising a 1-mm to 2-mm warp parallel to the mesh belt conveying direction and comprising a 0.1-mm to 0.5-mm weft perpendicular to this warp, the mesh belt which has a mesh opening ratio of 15% to 40% being coated or impregnated with silicone rubber for formation thereof (see, for example, Patent Reference No. 5).
Sixth, proposed is a belt which comprises a solid belt, holes for air permeability being formed in this solid belt, irregular groove shapes parallel to the belt conveying direction being present, height of the irregular groove shapes being not less than 0.1 mm, the irregular shapes repeating with a periodicity that is not less than 1 mm, height of unevenness in paper which is the object to be conveyed being reduced by suction means (see, for example, Patent Reference No. 6).
Seventh, proposed is transport belt wherein an air-permeable transport belt comprising a mesh belt is formed from yarn comprising fiber strands of twisted yarn in a vertical direction extending in the transport direction, and cross yarn extending in such fashion as to cross the transport direction and intersecting the yarns comprising fiber strands in the vertical direction, the gap between yarns comprising fiber strands in the vertical direction being larger than the gap between cross yarns in the horizontal direction (see, for example, Patent Reference No. 7).
Eighth, proposed is a belt which is a mesh formed from cloth made in plain weave wherein the mesh pitch is set so as to be between 100 μm and 170 μm, more solid yarn than twisted yarn is employed, and the difference in height between warp yarns and weft yarns where fibers intersect is set so as to be 20 μm to 100 μm (see, for example, Patent Reference No. 8).
Ninth, a conveyor belt is proposed which has been imparted with antislip functionality, there being elasticity due to rubber at a surface of a belt having a mesh structure (see, for example, Patent Reference No. 9).
Tenth, a technique is proposed in the context of a method of manufacturing stockinette hosiery in which heat is applied within a range such as will cause applied heat to melt and bond thermally bondable yarn filaments without causing melting of heat-shrinkable yarn filaments, causing the knit textile to shrink and causing bonding due to thermally bondable yarn filaments so as to prevent fraying of the mesh (see, for example, Patent Reference No. 10).
Eleventh, proposed is a fabric for clothing use in which a main yarn comprising polyester yarn or cotton yarn or mixed yarn containing both of these and acrylic yarn or the like is used and rib stitching is carried out to create a knit textile, and a polyolefin yarn which is comparatively thin and which undergoes plastic deformation is used as plating yarn to carry out plating by knitting this together with the acrylic main yarn over the entirety thereof, to form a fabric having good shape retention characteristics in which the polyolefin plating yarn surface is not present at the front (see, for example, Patent Reference No. 11).
However, the foregoing proposed conveyor belts which comprise mesh belts have the problem that fraying of yarn occurs at the belt side ends, processing being implemented at the belt side ends in the foregoing Patent Reference No. 1, Patent Reference No. 2, and Patent Reference No. 3 to address this problem. Furthermore, to increase strength and endurance, Patent Reference No. 5 is a mesh belt in which warp yarns are made thicker than weft yarns, diameter of warp yarns being made 1 mm to 2 mm, with diameter of weft yarns being made 0.1 mm to 0.5 mm. However, because this mesh belt is such that thickness of the warp yarn at the mesh is increased to 1 mm to 2 mm, it is of insufficient flexibility for use as a conveyor belt. Furthermore and in addition, mesh constituted from plain weave such as can be seen in the conventional art at Patent Reference No. 8 requires strategies including those for reinforcing strength and preventing lateral displacement and fraying at the side ends of the conveyor belt; for example, secondary treatment and reinforcing materials are required to prevent fraying, and so this results in increased cost.